Posted by The following is a vignette I wrote a while back working out ideas for the next book in my Song of Lagrandil series.
So… since the vignette takes place between books 3 and 4, it may contain… spoilers. Like nothing BUT spoilers now that I think about it.
You were warned…..
Honest…..
Hello Father
A vignette of the Song of Lagrandil, by Bruce Burns 2013
“Hello Father,” Ryan MacOrin said into the stinging ocean spray, “I’m not dead after all. By the way, I found the heir to a destroyed militant kingdom, and a four-hundred-year-old convicted traitor who happens to have formerly been a homosexual assassin. Can I keep them? They followed me home.”
Wolf blinked.
“Right,” Ryan said. “Um… Hey Dad. A funny thing happened to me on the way home last year. I thought puberty was rough until a semi-living fortress rewrote my genetic code. So, is the guest room still open?”
Wolf raised an eyebrow and looked at the two boys.
Ryan swallowed and tried again. “Hi Dad, this is my friend Leif Martel and my sworn liege-man Wolf. They’re going to be staying with us since I blew up their home to stop an invasion of mind-enslaving demoniacs from Before Remembering. I hope you don’t mind…”
Leif got up from the coiled rope he’d been using as a seat and stalked back below deck.
Ryan winced. “That probably wasn’t the most sensitive phrasing.” He shook saltwater out of his shoulder-length hair and pulled it back out of his face.
“Hi Father, I’m home, and you’ll never guess what’s in this strange crystal stick.”
Wolf did not even blink.
“Hey Dad! Guess what? I fell down a waterfall and became the next Orion King. What’s for supper?”
Ryan slumped into the coiled rope where Leif had been and beat his head against the railing in time with the waves. When he spoke again his voice was just a whisper.
“I’m the King of Lagrandil, but because I screwed up the prophet says it’s going to kill me. I’ve got the fate of a million people on my back and I already know I’m going to fail So, Father, if you wouldn’t mind holding me for a little bit…”
Ryan’s words choked off and the spray from the stormy spring sea hid his quiet tears.
If Wolf heard Ryan he gave no sign.
The sea roared on, uncaring.
Lagrandil 